Sparks of Hope

...or One Sexy Mama

At Cloud Tower, the Trix sisters are communicating with Miss Faragonda and Saladin, both at Alfea, via the hologram-telephone-thingy. Icy's giving Red Fountain and Alfea an ultimatum: either they surrender to the Trix sisters, swear allegiance to the Trix sisters, and tell their students Icy's the best and the greatest, or the schools will be destroyed, along with the students and teachers. Icy gives them five hours to decide. Miss Faragonda thinks the Trix sisters are crazy if they expect the schools to surrender to them. Saladin thinks they must surrender, but Faragonda speaks of one hope they may have, if Bloom is brave enough for a mission Faragonda has for her. Saladin says he will draw the attack toward Red Fountain first, to give Faragonda the time she needs for Bloom's mission.

At Cloud Tower, Darcy is talking to thousands of decay bugs in baby talk. She's in an awesome, commanding pose before the bugs, as well. Really cute Darcy bit here.

Darcy: Aw, my sweet little babies. Look how excited you are. You ready to take over the universe for Mama, are ya' pumpkins, are ya'? Takey takey takey, wipey-outey. That's right, conquering realms is fun, yes it is.

Knut, holding the duck, is right behind Darcy, obviously worried. He notes that the Trix sisters want to take over everything, including the ogre realm, where his mother lives. He runs off with the duck. Like it wasn't obvious before that Knut really wasn't hardcore enough for the Trix sisters. He's bad, but not this bad. And he's a mama's boy too, it seems.

Back at Alfea, in Miss Faragonda's office, Faragonda is speaking with the five Winx girls. She tells the girls that Red Fountain will draw the next wave of attacks, but after Red Fountain falls the attacks will turn to Alfea. Faragonda explains that Bloom holds the key to their little hope of victory. She tells Bloom that the Trix sisters may have taken Bloom's dragonfire, but Bloom still has the ability to burn the dragonfire. Hence why she's still able to enter the Magix realm. She tells Bloom that she is the only one who can actually use the dragonfire to its full potential. Faragonda continues to speak of Sparx being in eternal winter since the dragonfire was extinguished there. Bloom figures out that Miss Faragonda is saying that Bloom can go back to Sparx to rekindle its flame, as well as her own flame. Miss Faragonda warns it will be a very dangerous mission, but Bloom's friends are willing to take the journey with her.

At Red Fountain, Knut, with the duck on his shoulder, is talking with Saladin, telling Saladin he wants to help, that he's worried about his family in the ogre realm. Saladin knows the usual routine, though: ogres smash the warriors, and the warriors lock the ogres away, and Saladin asks why he shouldn't lock Knut up. Knut pleads with Saladin, saying they've got a common goal to beat the witches, and how he'll do everything he can to help stop the witches. Holograms of the Trix sisters appear in the office.

Darcy seems to have particular dislike for the duck. Seems odd that she seems to hate the duck more than Icy, the one the duck actually stalks. Stormy says they got his message that Saladin wants Red Fountain to go down first. Saladin uses his snake staff to shoot a blast at the holograms, and is relieved the Trio took his bait.

Back at Alfea, the Winx girls are standing inside the magical reality chamber. Professor Palladium explains how he's reprogrammed the chamber to create a transdimensional portal to bring the girls to Sparx. He warns that it is not virtual reality, but fully real. He continues about dangerous creatures that live on dead planets that they know nothing about. He then magically changes the girls into snowsuits.

Palladium: Before we can send you, we have to suit you up in the appropriate attire. You see, the weather on Sparx is quite brutal, so I'm afraid open-toe shoes and exposed midriffs simply will not do.Griselda: If I had my way, this would be the year-round dress code.Faragonda: Oh, Griselda.

Miss Faragonda giggles after her "reprimand" of Griselda. Stella thinks the outfits are hot. Professor Palladium tells the girls that the fate of the universe depends on their success, and wishes them luck.

COMMERCIAL BREAK #1

The Winx girls are on Sparx. Flora and Stella note the desolate, cold condition of the planet. Bloom asks how they'll find the palace. Tecna tells Bloom she'll use her digital navisystem to figure out out. She tells the girls they need to go north, and Stella says north would be the direction of the Indigo moon. Has Stella been to Sparx before, or remembered hearing about it in school? How does Stella know which way north would be in relation to the Indigo moon on Sparx? The girls traverse the land as "Count on Me" plays.

From Cloud Tower, the Trix sisters are spying on the Winx girls. The Trio decide to cast a spell to make the place even colder. What's interesting to note is that the Trio don't seem to be aware of why they're there. They seem to think the Winx girls are just trying to escape Magix. If they knew Bloom was trying to get her powers back, they might've opted for a personal visit to the planet, instead.

On Sparx, Flora hears a cry for help from the voice of nature. Musa hears it too. Didn't know Musa had a strong connection with nature. The girls notice how it's getting colder by the second, and they all complain.

Flora's comment gets even better when you get to her comment later in the episode. The cold is even getting to Tecna, getting her to say something fairly un-Tecna like:

Tecna: Come on, girls. Forward, march. Or something.

At Red Fountain, Saladin and Codatorta have the students rounded up in the gates of Red Fountain, and have them prepared to fight. After the students do some sort of salute, Timmy acts like a complete dork, saying how it felt cool. Bah.

Saladin: Everyone who survives passes the semester.

Clouds form around Red Fountain, and Stormy's head appears in the clouds, saying how pathetic the boys are. Codatorta tells the boys to prepare, and wait for the monsters to form, and attack on Codatorta's command. A purple-haired boy named Bishop attacks one of the monsters. Brandon attacks a monster, and warns a boy with claws, named W, of a monster to his right. Brandon attacks another monster, and random boys attack more monsters. An extra-large monster, without a head, appears. Timmy takes down three monsters with his laser gun-thing. More boys attack more monsters. One of the boys says they need more reinforcements, and archers. Knut punches a monster to the ground, and he notices a monster about to get Brandon.

Knut: Behind you Sky, er, I mean Brandon. Behind you, Brandon.

Heh. Just as I sometimes have trouble keeping Brandon and Prince Sky straight, apparently Knut does too. Speaking of which, where is Prince Sky, anyway? The monster picks up Brandon. Two more guys go up to face the extra-large monster, as one guy complains about there being too many monsters.

COMMERCIAL BREAK #2

Codatorta insists the huge monster to put his boys down, and slays it. As if it was really going to listen to his command. Still plenty of fighting going on in the background.

From Cloud Tower, the Trix sisters are watching gleefully. Icy decides it's time for the girls to make their final strike on Red Fountain.

Back at Red Fountain, Knut's still using brute force to take down several of the monsters, including the one holding Brandon, which Knut throws at a bunch of other monsters. Saladin uses a spell that destroys all the monsters... though they all come back to life shortly after. Hologram Icy's head starts a fire at Red Fountain, to free the dragons from their pens. The dragons break loose, and cause random damage to Red Fountain. Saladin magically puts out the fire. The Trix sisters appear in person before Red Fountain, laughing. Icy summons an ice dragon to freeze Red Fountain in ice. The top of Red Fountain falls right off. Codatorta tells the boys they'll need to get to the evacuation ships. The boys, as well as Saladin and Codatorta, get into the ships and fly off.

From Cloud Tower, the Trix sisters are all laughing. Icy says how they'll go for Alfea now.

Back on Sparx, the Winx girls are still walking forth. And still freezing. And Flora's earlier comment comes back to haunt her. Looks like Stella's advice was better after all:

Flora: I can't take it anymore.Musa: What happened to your warm, inner place?Flora: It froze.

Stella says they should be close, that the palace might be right up a hill up ahead. But the hill comes to life: it's not a hill at all, but a yeti. I'd still love to know how Stella knows so much about Sparx. Even if all this was taught in school, Stella doesn't seem like the type who would've remembered much from history class.

COMMERCIAL BREAK #3

On Sparx, the yeti "avalanches" a ton of snow onto the girls. The girls climb out of the snow and run away from the yeti.

The boys land their escape ships at Alfea. The boys walk in, all weak. Miss Faragonda points them to their quarters. She tells Saladin and Codatorta that their hope all rests with one girl.

Back on Sparx, the yeti is chasing after the Winx girls. It avalanches more snow their way, burying Musa well. Stella decides to try to take the yeti out herself, and transforms to her Winx form. A different remix of the theme song plays from the usual transformation song. Also, while Stella's in her Winx form, she is not cold in the least. A mistake on the writers' part, or maybe her sun powers just let her keep warm while in Winx form? Who knows? Stella fires a blast at the yeti, which does not affect it. The yeti creates a large icicle, and tosses it at the ground, creating a huge crack in the ground. Bloom is on one side, and the other Winx girls are on the other. Bloom's precariously close to the edge, about to fall in. Stella, are those wings there just for show? Save Bloom, for crying out loud! I'm not going to blame Stella, though, rather bad writing here for a cheap cliffhanger. Bloom falls in.

Other Stuff

Well... nothing much happened. Or it felt like nothing much happened. The episode was interesting, except for the parts that just felt a bit dull, that nothing much was happening, which was a number of stretches. It wasn't a bad episode by any means, but after last week's super hyper ultra show, this was clearly lackluster in comparison.

Again, the cliffhanger sucked. I don't believe for a moment that Stella would not have just flown over to rescue Bloom from falling. Just lazy writing to get a cheap and easy cliffhanger in. May Hans yodel his way to doom for this.

And as effortlessly as Icy took out Red Fountain--not even really needing the help of the Army of Decay--how is Alfea going to be spared, exactly? I guess we'll find out. I just have a bad feeling it's going to be "Icy conveniently forgets to just use her ice dragon," though.